My parents are 1st cousins.
The discussion of inbreeding within mice used for the purposes of experimentation was the topic for biology that day. Suddenly the conversation changed when a bright spark then declared anyone who was born to first cousins were instantly retarded. Im sitting there biting my tongue getting more uptight as the biology teacher practically agrees. Out of sheer annoyance I stuck up my hand and told the class that my parents were infact cousins and being in top set for all classes was surely evidence I wasn't an instant tard. Instantly the whole school knew and I was called disgusting with people daring their friends to ask if it was true expecting me to back down. I didnt. And I never will. Im pretty proud of my parents, my dad left Canada to be with my mum, My mum lost her parents for 15 years (and I didnt meet them until I was 6) due to the shame bought on the family etc etc.

And no, Im not from Norwich. Nor am I a british muslim..
(50% marry 1st cousins!! supposedly).

Im also happy to say I have the correct amount of fingers and toes and suppopsedly above average IQ (but seriously lacking common sense!)

bring on the insults ;)
(MissFlee tried again on, Thu 26 Aug 2010, 17:03, 13 replies)

you've got an insane amount of balls
That's the retard in you I guess. Seriously, I admire your backbone for not backing down.
(CactusZack Shaved his coin purse on, Thu 26 Aug 2010, 17:07, closed)

What, three of them?

( idonthaveafunnynickname Drink-Aware? Sure. I'm aware I want another drink., Fri 27 Aug 2010, 3:09, closed)

brave post
click, you have nothing to be ashamed of. My grandmother was born out of wedlock and it was a source of acute embaressment all her life. Thankfully we no longer blame children for their parent's 'sins'.
I also have friends who had a similar marriage. Never met each other and then fell in love when they were teenagers. I think that this somehow breaks the taboo, because they felt like strangers when they met.
(justin(e), Sat 28 Aug 2010, 17:52, closed)

FREAAAKKK!!!
Well done for standing your ground/not having 16 fingers on one hand tho
I would have kept my mouth shut and just agreed if it was me
(NuffMuff fucks shrubbery, Thu 26 Aug 2010, 17:12, closed)

why should you back down or be ashamed?
you haven't done anything wrong. nor have your parents, despite what the church may think. you can't help who you fall in love with.
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Thu 26 Aug 2010, 17:13, closed)

I think cousins marrying
doesn't generally produce problems in the first generation anyway. Just don't marry your cousin
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Thu 26 Aug 2010, 17:45, closed)

Sadly, it does
My grandparents were first cousins, and their son and daughter (my mother) died of heart disease, caused by extremely high chloresterol levels, at 33 and 44 respectively. I have high chloresterol too. Still, my mum and my uncle (what I remember of him) were good people and if I should die younger than most, well, if my grandparents had married others, then I wouldn't be here at all.
(Vainomoinen went looking for the Sampo on, Thu 26 Aug 2010, 19:01, closed)

If Im right..
It usually only causes problems when there are inherant illnesses and/or if marrying cousins is common within that particular family. Such as British muslims; www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/
Though the dispatches programme did seemed to be covertly racist in its approach it did show the very serious problems which can occur when such practices are commonplace within families.

Also; my parents went through genetic counselling before trying to have a child. Which would have sign posted any foreseeable problems.
(MissFlee tried again on, Thu 26 Aug 2010, 19:14, closed)

If anything,
I thought the dispatches program bent over backwards to be as PC as possible, allowing many people to defend what is a bad practice. Its a cut and dried issue, repeated generations of consanginous marriages hugely increases your chance of having kids with terrible genetic abnormalities. It should be discouraged.

Some communities recognise the problem of inheritable genetic conditions and try and test for it: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tay-sachs#Society_and_culture
If the test is positive, the Ashkenazi Jews will not marry. That is taking responsibility within a community.

British Muslims seem to be just putting their heads in the sand and treating it as a cultural attack instead of a health issue. Fact is, consanginous marriages are in general a bad idea. Just because some people get lucky doesn't mean they should be encouraged.

Personally I'd prefer it if there was a legal barrier to marrying or having sex with relatives within a certain degree, simply to protect the resulting children.
(The man with the flan swashed his buckle on, Thu 26 Aug 2010, 19:41, closed)

Always nice to speak to someone else from Norfolk.

( jim_bob can herd cats., Thu 26 Aug 2010, 18:02, closed)

Its legal,
and obviously hasn't caused any problems in your case, but as I'm sure you well know there is a very sound biological reason that having kids with family members is a taboo in the vast majority of cultures I'm afraid. I wouldn't be too happy about my own kid marrying his cousin for this reason.

Its also worth noting that genetic counselling and testing will only protect you so far. My wife works in this area and the recessive conditions often caused by consanguinuity are usually undetectable by chromosomal or genetic analysis in the resulting children, never mind the parents.

Fortunately though, as long as you 'outbreed' your own kids should have no more chance of inerited disease than anyone else.

Obviously all this doesn't excuse schoolkids being shits or give any reason to stop you being proud of your parents.
(The man with the flan swashed his buckle on, Thu 26 Aug 2010, 19:31, closed)

Yeah, pretty much as I was going to say.
The chances of weird genetic issues are pretty uncommon in the children of cousins, but it can be an issue if it goes on for generations, and the weird genetic issues build up over time. Just look at the royal family.
( Sextant goes to him is emotionally erect, on this day, Sat 28 Aug 2010, 16:57, closed)

I went out with my dads cousins daughter for 4 1/2 years.
nothing wrong there I feel and I'm adopted anyway so the genetic side of things would never have been an issue anyway, but still we just told people (who didn't know the family) that our parents were just friends of the family, saved on any awkward questions.
(Kip, Tue 31 Aug 2010, 10:17, closed)